Remembering Baghdad on the bayou and exploding the myth of Bush administration incompetence

even though i've cut WAY back on my blogging, and, yes, even though barack obama officially became the democratic nominee for president in what will be seen as one of the nation's most historical moments, i would be less than true to myself if, on its third anniversary, i didn't honor the national tragedy and monumental disgrace that was hurricane katrina...

first, let's put the lie once and for all to the myth of bush administration "incompetence"...

courtesy of brasscheck tv...



incompetence...? i don't think so...

Mission accomplished Mr. President

In the chaos and trauma that accompanied the levee collapses in New Orleans in 2005, a few basic facts were obscured:

1. Katrina was not a natural disaster. It was an engineering disaster caused by the federally funded U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

2. Far from performing incompetently, the Bush administration and reactionary forces in local government were extremely effective in attaining their aims.

Specifically:

1. The Bush administration did an extremely effective job of withholding vital "life and death" information that levees had not only topped, they had also catastrophically collapsed.

(Reference: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/79.html)

2. FEMA did an extremely effective job of discouraging qualified relief workers from coming to the area, going so far as to turn many back at gunpoint.

They also turned away much needed supplies like water and fuel and sabotaged local communications lines.

3. Thousands of flood victims were very effectively herded and held in concentration-like conditions within the city for many days after the flooding.

4. Though it claimed to be unable to bring food, water, medicine or transportation into the flood zone, Homeland Security did an extremely effective job of quickly hiring and deploying highly paid gun thugs to the region who were employed by companies that had made massive contributions to the Bush campaign.

5. The Bush administration and their friends in the news media did an extremely effective job of painting the victims of the flooding as dangerous and not worthy of being helped.

6. The Bush administration did an extremely effective job of erasing a carefully researched and thought out evacuation plan developed over many years by LSU and replacing it with NOTHING.

(Reference: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/79.html)

7. Post-flood law enforcement did an extremely effective job of illegally seizing fire arms from hundreds of law abiding citizens while allowing criminals to run amok.

Incompetence? Poor planning?

You've got to be kidding....

The Bush administration wanted to destroy the black Democratic voting block in New Orleans - and it did. New Orleans and southern Louisiana, one of the last Democratic hold outs in the South, is Republican now.

It wanted a justification for seizing guns and declaring martial law and succeeded in creating conditions where people would beg for military intervention.

It wanted practice holding large numbers of civilians in concentration camp-like conditions - and it got the opportunity.

It wanted to obscure the fact that instead of using the tax dollars it's collected over the decades to repair and maintain levees, it's used the money to engage in illegal foreign wars.

Mission accomplished on every score.

But they made one miscalculation.

So conditioned were administration planners by their own habitual depravity, it never occurred to them that the rest of the country would object to seeing their fellow citizens suffer so outrageously at the hands of the government.

The good news is the moral instincts of Americans still function well. The bad news is their ability to see what is being done to them in broad daylight is highly impaired.

new orleans today...

from bill quigley at counterpunch via alternet...

Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast three years ago this week. The president promised to do whatever it took to rebuild. But the nation is trying to fight wars in several countries and is dealing with economic crisis. The attention of the president wandered away. As a result, this is what New Orleans looks like today.

0. Number of renters in Louisiana who have received financial assistance from the $10 billion federal post-Katrina rebuilding program Road Home Community Development Block Grant -- compared to 116,708 homeowners.

0. Number of apartments currently being built to replace the 963 public housing apartments formerly occupied and now demolished at the St. Bernard Housing Development.

0. Amount of data available to evaluate performance of publicly financed, privately run charter schools in New Orleans in 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 school years.

.008. Percentage of rental homes that were supposed to be repaired and occupied by August 2008 which were actually completed and occupied -- a total of 82 finished out of 10,000 projected.

1. Rank of New Orleans among US cities in percentage of housing vacant or ruined.

1. Rank of New Orleans among US cities in murders per capita for 2006 and 2007.

4. Number of the 13 City of New Orleans Planning Districts that are at the same risk of flooding as they were before Katrina.

10. Number of apartments being rehabbed so far to replace the 896 apartments formerly occupied and now demolished at the Lafitte Housing Development.

11. Percent of families who have returned to live in Lower Ninth Ward.

17. Percentage increase in wages in the hotel and food industry since before Katrina.

20-25. Years that experts estimate it will take to rebuild the City of New Orleans at current pace.

25. Percent fewer hospitals in metro New Orleans than before Katrina.

32. Percent of the city's neighborhoods that have less than half as many households as before Katrina.

36. Percent fewer tons of cargo that move through Port of New Orleans since Katrina.

38. Percent fewer hospital beds in New Orleans since Katrina.

40. Percentage fewer special education students attending publicly funded, privately run charter schools than traditional public schools.

41. Number of publicly funded, privately run public charter schools in New Orleans out of total of 79 public schools in the city.

43. Percentage of child care available in New Orleans compared to before Katrina.

46. Percentage increase in rents in New Orleans since Katrina.

56. Percentage fewer inpatient psychiatric beds compared to before Katrina.

80. Percentage fewer public transportation buses now than pre-Katrina.

81. Percentage of homeowners in New Orleans who received insufficient funds to cover the complete costs to repair their homes.

300. Number of National Guard troops still in City of New Orleans.

1,080. Days National Guard troops have remained in City of New Orleans.

1,250. Number of publicly financed vouchers for children to attend private schools in New Orleans in program's first year.

6,982. Number of families still living in FEMA trailers in metro New Orleans area.

8,000. Fewer publicly assisted rental apartments planned for New Orleans by federal government.

10,000. Houses demolished in New Orleans since Katrina.

12,000. Number of homeless in New Orleans even after camps of people living under the bridges have been resettled -- double the pre-Katrina number.

14,000. Number of displaced families in New Orleans area whose hurricane rental assistance expires in March 2009.

32,000. Number of children who have not returned to public school in New Orleans, leaving the public school population less than half what it was pre-Katrina.

39,000. Number of Louisiana homeowners who have applied for federal assistance in repair and rebuilding who still have not received any money.

45,000. Fewer children enrolled in Medicaid public healthcare in New Orleans than pre-Katrina.

46,000. Fewer African-American voters in New Orleans in 2007 gubernatorial election than in 2003 gubernatorial election.

55,000. Fewer houses receiving mail than before Katrina.

62,000. Fewer people in New Orleans enrolled in Medicaid public healthcare than pre-Katrina.

71,657. Vacant, ruined, unoccupied houses in New Orleans today.

124,000. Fewer people working in metropolitan New Orleans than pre-Katrina.

132,000. Fewer people in New Orleans than before Katrina, according to the City of New Orleans current population estimate of 321,000 in New Orleans.

214,000. Fewer people in New Orleans than before Katrina, according to the US Census Bureau current population estimate of 239,000 in New Orleans.

453,726. Population of New Orleans before Katrina.

320 million. Number of trees destroyed in Louisiana and Mississippi by Katrina.

368 million. Dollar losses of five major metro New Orleans hospitals from Katrina through 2007. In 2008, these hospitals expect another $103 million in losses.

1.9 billion. FEMA dollars scheduled to be available to metro New Orleans for Katrina damages that have not yet been delivered.

2.6 billion. FEMA dollars scheduled to be available to State of Louisiana for Katrina damages that have not yet been delivered.

when the tragedy was unfolding, i was in buenos aires watching cnn international, transfixed and alternately weeping and bellowing in anger at what i was seeing... now, three years later, we still don't have the full story or anything even faintly resembling the truth... i'm not holding my breath...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

What do Cyclone Nargis and Hurricane Katrina have in common...? A shitty government response...

- unprepared to non-existent emergency response on a national level

- using military force to control citizens inside national borders during a natural disaster

- refusing offers of aid from other countries

- a shocking disregard for the poorest and most vulnerable citizens

The United Nations suspended relief supplies to Myanmar on Friday after the military government seized the food and equipment it had already sent into the country.

Earlier, in a statement, Myanmar’s military junta said it was willing to receive disaster relief from the outside world but would not welcome outside relief workers. Nearly one week after a devastating cyclone, supplies into the country were still being delayed and aid experts were being turned back as they arrived at the airport.

In the statement, the government said it would distribute international relief supplies itself.

Paul Risley, a spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program, said, "all the food aid and equipment that we managed to get in has been confiscated." He said the World Food Program was suspending the few flights that the Myanmar authorities had so far allowed to enter the country until the matter was resolved.

[...]

One United Nations official said he had never seen delays like this before in delivering relief supplies and aid officials. In Indonesia after the tsunami in 2004, he said, an air bridge of daily flights was established within 48 hours.

"The frustration caused by what appears to be a paperwork delay is unprecedented in modern humanitarian relief efforts," said the official, Paul Risley, a spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program, in Bangkok. "It’s astonishing."

yes, the scale of human loss and devastation in myanmar is staggering and the cruel and authoritarian response of the myanmar military junta is appalling... but...

as brother tim was reminding me last night during our long chat, three years later, new orleans still looks almost as ragged as it did immediately post-hurricane katrina... my country has no room whatsoever to stake out a righteous position vis a vis myanmar...

god help the people of myanmar...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

REAL U.S. citizens know and support the U.S. CONSTITUTION

yeah, i know... a radical concept...

scott ritter speaks in new orleans, via brasscheck tv...



it's all about CITIZENSHIP, people...!

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

What REALLY happened to New Orleans

from greg palast...



thanks to brasscheck tv...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

While I was shoveling the driveway yesterday

this is what people living 50 miles east of us were dealing with...


Marilyn Newton/RGJ.com


Marilyn Newton/RGJ.com

Hundreds of homes remained under up to 8 feet of water Sunday as federal emergency workers were on their way to assess the flood damage caused when an irrigation canal’s earthen levee ruptured in Fernley early Saturday morning.

Cold weather was turning some of the water to ice, complicating plans to allow natural flows to move most of the water on to a federal wetland outside town. Fernley officials said they were considering using pumps to aid in that effort.

The levee break that occurred just after 4 a.m. on Saturday was repaired late in the day but as much as a square mile of the town was still under at least 2 feet of water.

i don't know about you folks, but, on seeing both those photos, i experienced massive deja vu...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

The never-ending Katrina tragedy [UPDATE]

i've been following this story for some time, but i was never in doubt about the outcome...

After protesters clashed violently with the police inside and outside the New Orleans City Council chambers on Thursday, the Council voted unanimously to allow the federal government to demolish 4,500 apartments in the four biggest public housing projects here.

The Council also called on the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reopen some apartments in the closed projects immediately and to rebuild all of the public housing units that it bulldozes. The agency plans to replace barracks-style projects, known as “the bricks,” with mixed-income developments.

“We need affordable housing in this city,” said Shelley Stephenson Midura, a Council member who proposed the resolution that was adopted. But, she added, “public housing ought not to be the warehouse for the poor.”

Advocates for public housing residents contended that the agency’s plan would not provide enough housing for the 3,000 families who lived in the projects before Hurricane Katrina, almost all of them black. Many of them have not been able to return to the city, and some protesters said they were being deliberately excluded from New Orleans.

"deliberately excluded from new orleans..." yep, that was the plan, all right... stop and think for a moment... how do you think you would feel if the place that had been your family's home for generations was devastated by a natural disaster, forcing you to temporarily relocate, and, when you want to come back, those with the power and the money who call the shots in that city, your city, effectively make it impossible for you to return...? why do you think so many people were evacuated to locations so far away from new orleans...? why do you think it has taken so long to seriously begin reconstruction...? the powerful, monied elites see new orleans as a wonderful, historic, private playground, as well as a gigantic opportunity to continue enriching themselves in the process... now that those inconvenient and unpleasant to look at poor black people are out of the way, let the good times roll...

[UPDATE]

amy goodman has an informative report here... (real media video file)

note: advocates were labeled as "terrorists..."

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Katrina - the never-ending disaster (www.levees.org)

levee breaches in new orleans during hurricane katrina...



check what these high-schoolers are wanting to do about the scandalous cover-up by the corp of engineers......



a timely story in today's nyt...

If rebuilding anything in this storm-scarred place could possibly qualify as simple, surely it would be the administration building in City Park.

The two-story structure, built in 1992, does not have any of the features that can complicate restoring public buildings. No special historic, environmental, cultural or political significance. No history of poor maintenance or other damage (aside from the five feet of water that filled it after the levees failed). No need to be merged, moved or reimagined in response to changes after Hurricane Katrina.

Yet after almost two years of federal inspections and studies and reviews filling more than 90 pages, the administration building has been neither repaired nor replaced. And there are dozens of similarly incomplete projects at the park, hundreds in the city, thousands across the state of Louisiana.

In fact, the federal government has agreed to pay $2.3 billion so far for rebuilding Louisiana public works like schools, sewers and police stations. But so far, only $650 million — 28 percent — of that money has been spent. In Mississippi, only 27 percent has been spent of the $1.1 billion of federal tax dollars set aside to replace government infrastructure there.

i've posted a number of times on how i sat in front of the television in buenos aires, argentina, for days, watching the katrina disaster unfold, alternately sobbing and bellowing with rage at what i believe to have been a purposefully neglectful and incompetent response on the part of the bush administration... it's absolutely one of the most disgraceful things i have ever witnessed, and, over two years later, it's still a mess...


A New Orleans scene from August of last year

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the Democratic party are complicit in killing democracy

here's a follow-on to jim's Spoiled brat, two faced, eltist, scumbag beltway princess post from the 28th...

Her machinations since Democrats took over the U.S. House in January 2007 show that Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't scared of the Republicans - "her eagerness to cooperate with the Bush regime is matched only by her incompetence in leading Congress." Pelosi and her leadership clique have never had the slightest intention of seriously opposing George Bush, since they are quite content with a status quo of endless war, half of New Orleans abandoned, true universal health care on perpetual hold, and a growing police state. Every constituency of the Democratic Party has been betrayed, with the complicity of Pelosi and her crowd.

[...]

It is clear that Nancy Pelosi's reign as Speaker has been an absolute disaster for the Democratic party and for the entire nation. Her eagerness to cooperate with the Bush regime is matched only by her incompetence in leading Congress. Under her watch, Congress gave Alberto Gonzales, on his way to riding out of town on a rail, a significant victory by expanding FISA regulations to allow warrantless surveillance of American citizens.

[...]

The story of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act debacle has been blamed on Bush. It is true that he once again lied about a terror threat, but it is not true that Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats were innocently stampeded. The Democrats had every intention of caving from the very beginning. Pelosi and the rest of the leadership promised the ACLU and other civil liberties groups that they wouldn't pass a bill without first investigating the extent of White House law breaking and without consulting them first. They did no such thing. As an ACLU lobbyist put it, "They turned around and screwed us over - and the Constitution - all at once."

Disappointment in the Democrats, pleas to "grow a spine" miss the point entirely. Pelosi and her clique have no interest in Democracy. They go through the flimsiest pretense of opposing Bush when they have no interest in doing so. Her goal is to preserve the status quo, not to overturn it.

[...]

Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of what passes for Congressional leadership have perfected their criminal enterprise. Every act of treachery is followed by lame excuses for inaction. The truly spineless ones, progressives wallowing in denial, foolishly whine, asking each other what is wrong when the answer stares them in the face. The Democratic party is complicit in killing democracy.

they ALL need to go, every last goddam one of 'em...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Beyond outrage: a manifesto

took the words right out of my mouth...

nightprowlkitty at daily kos...

We saw an election stolen, the will of the people denied. And in the aftermath we saw every progressive and humane aspect of government subverted. And we were outraged.

We saw the great City of New York attacked and even as people all around the world united in sympathy and gave help, criminals who had stolen power planned to go to war with the wrong enemy. And we were outraged.

We saw the social apparatus of our nation subverted and prostituted to engender mistrust and hatred towards anyone who would speak the truth. And we were outraged.

We saw a bloody war, an illegal war of aggression, spiral out of control, with "collateral damage" so high that it astounds the senses, hurts unbearably, as at the same time we saw our wounded soldiers untreated and abused by the very ones with power that sent them to this war. And we were outraged.

We saw the great City of New Orleans and the lovely Gulf Coast drowned and allowed to remain damaged, people treated like animals, again the hate unleashed by the criminals in power through a deranged media absorbed by its own profits and fears of retaliation by those very criminals. Whatever good reporters there may have been were quickly subsumed by corporate edits of complicity and kowtowing. And we were outraged.

We saw our rights being sold down the river, our own Democratic representatives so far removed from reality as to not even make a gesture towards real opposition to these criminals who have stolen power in America and destroyed our unity as a nation. And we were outraged.

We saw our justice system perverted beyond recognition, honest men and women punished for doing their jobs, laws against the weakest of us enforced with savagery and contempt for the simple basics of humanity, from poor folks with no health care to undocumented migrants being treated no differently than terrorists at Gitmo, to folks from public housing in New Orleans being forced into exile from their homes, their lives, exile and death, and oh, we were outraged.

And we saw a courageous man in Congress being forced to recant his words and apologize to appease the powers that still retain their dark hold over this country, even though the only powers left are those of destruction and fear and greed.

And I am no longer outraged. No. Nor am I shamed. My eyes are wide open now and I am not outraged nor ashamed.

I am resolved. My gaze is now level rather than rolling in terror and anger. I know this misAdministration for what they are and I know what they will do. I know our Democratic leadership for what they are as well, and they have made it clear what they will do.

This war must end. And this crew of criminals in the Executive Branch need to be removed from office. I know this. And I know that our present leadership, in both parties, have not made a commitment to doing either of these things.

I don't blame anyone here for how they are now reacting to this reality. For those who feel they must leave the party, I have no words of censure. For those who will stay and fight for the party, I have no complaint. For those who must continue to yell, I have no need for refutation.

I am united with anyone who is against this misAdministration. I am united with all my brothers and sisters across this nation who see what is going on, and I will support all who oppose these criminals and their enablers. I will support in any way I can all my neighbors who help each other, from the terror attacks in New York City to the floods on the Gulf Coast to the terrible firestorms in California.

I have no more outrage, feel no more shame. What was done to Rep. Stark has shown me there is no longer any reason to respect those who have been charged with leading our nation. They are simply human beings who have been unable, for whatever reason, to do the right thing. They are not even worth my outrage.

I will focus my attention from now on to those who are able to do the right thing, from whatever walk of life they travel, powerful or with no power at all. I am resolved. I am not outraged and I am not ashamed.

superb... now, let's take that resolution and put it to work, shall we...?

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Larry Beinhart continues to pursue the myth of Bushco incompetence

larry is assailing the still-criminal negligence in rehabilitating new orleans and the gulf coast post-katrina, and the failure to capture osama bin laden...

perhaps the assumptions should be questioned... here's what i believe to be the case...

the current administration deliberately failed to effectively respond post-katrina and, likewise, has had no intention of capturing osama bin laden... in the former instance, sending the message that government cannot be relied upon to help us with anything has been undeniably effective... in the second, why take the poster child for endless war out of action...? we are so invested in seeing our government officials as miserably incompetent in their pursuit of the common good that we completely fail to consider the possibility of much darker motives... unless and until we do, the constitutional crisis will continue unaddressed, the unfettered power of the executive will continue to grow, and our country will continue to be transformed into something unrecognizable... and, if unaddressed until 20 january 2009, it may be too late...

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments

Clearly not committed to fully telling the truth

Why would anyone refuse to take an oath on a matter like this, unless he were not fully committed to telling the truth? And why would Congress accept that idea, especially in an investigation that has already been marked by repeated false and misleading statements from administration officials?

yes, why...?

Mr. Bush’s overall strategy seems clear: to stop Congress from learning what went on within the White House, which may well be where the key decisions to fire the attorneys were made.

therefore...

It is no great surprise that top officials of this administration believe they do not need to testify before Congress. This is an administration that has shown over and over that it does not believe that the laws apply to it, and that it does not respect its co-equal branches of government. Congress should subpoena Mr. Rove and the others, and question them under oath, in public. If Congress has more questions, they should be recalled.

That would not be “partisanship,” as Mr. Bush wants Americans to believe. It would be Congress doing its job by holding the president and his team accountable — a rare thing in the last six years.

the part i like the best is the first sentence...

In nasty and bumbling comments made at the White House yesterday, President Bush declared that “people just need to hear the truth” about the firing of eight United States attorneys.

in terms less suited to the op-ed page of the nyt, kos offers his perspective...

Apparently, the way to set Bush off isn't to mismanage a war in Iraq and kill thousands of our own. That gets you a medal. It isn't to stay on vacation while a major American city drowns amidst neglect from incompetent federal agencies. That got Brownie a "heckuva job!".

But you say that Bush and his administration should be held accountable for their actions, and look out! You say that his people should testify under oath, and he's outraged that they won't be able to lie!

that's our president...!

Submit To Propeller
Tweet

[Permalink] 0 comments